CLOSE THE DOCK? Weigh in at the park board meeting. Page 4
NEWS | Environmental testing set for K2. [5] COMMENTARY | Take steps to keep your brain young. [6] SPORTS | Boys’ basketball [16] team heads to State.
ACROBATIC ESCAPADES Take in the spectacle this weekend. Page 12
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015
Vol. 60, No. 09
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Fire department will ask public to help plan for the future Agency may consider bolstering its response By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Susan Riemer/Staff Photo
Ezequiel Aleman, from Uruguay, tells a scary story in Spanish to Harbor School students, while some of his students also listen.
Visitors from South America
At-risk teens expand their borders By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
At the Harbor School last Friday, several sixth-grade students gathered to listen to a story in Spanish, but instead of their usual instructor leading the class, a guest teacher told the tale, joined by five of his students from Uruguay. The visiting students and their instructors are not those who typically take part in student exchange programs, but rather they are from a community called Casavalle, the poorest area of Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay.
There six days a week they attend a free, private school, where days run 11 hours long, three meals are served, and school activities in the evening hours are encouraged to keep all students engaged and safe. At home, the teens contend with a variety of problems in addition to poverty, including family violence, drug dealing or prostitution, according to their teacher Ezequiel Aleman. In their neighborhood, he said, 75 percent of students drop out before SEE TEENS, 23
Vashon’s fire district is kicking off a long-range planning process that may ultimately determine whether it seeks more tax revenue to boost its emergency response capabilities. A group of about 30 islanders representing both Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) and the public met for the first time last week to begin what Fire Chief Hank Lipe called a transparent process of crafting a strategic plan to guide the district over the next several years. In the coming months, Lipe said, the group — called the Strategic Planning Oversight Team
(SPOT) — will work to present islanders with information about the fire district’s current abilities to respond to medical emergencies and fires and to gauge public sentiment. “They really need to understand what our capabilities are, what they’re getting for their money and if it’s acceptable or not,” Lipe said. “If it’s not acceptable, what do they really want?” Lipe and other VIFR officials have said that while they’re pleased with the district’s current response capabilities, the agency is also facing a gradually increasing number of calls as well as other challenges. Medical emergencies have gradually increased on Vashon in recent years, from a little over 800 calls in 2001 to more than 1,100 calls in 2013. What’s more, SEE VIFR, 14
Construction will cause traffic changes, potential delays at dock Project to make ferry dock earthquake resistant will last nine months By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
A major construction project at the northend ferry dock will mean traffic changes and possible ferry delays for nine months beginning this summer. Washington State Ferries (WSF) will hold a public meeting next week on Vashon to inform about the ferry dock and what to expect when construction begins in June. During the bulk
of the project, vehicles will line up on the road instead of the dock. Part of 103rd Avenue SW will become a one-lane street, and there will be no room to pick up or drop off passengers on the dock or on 103rd. “We’re working hard to ensure that the effects to Vashon riders will be minimal, but there is construction, so we do appreciate patience,” said Nicole McIntosh, an engineering manager for WSF’s terminal engineering department. Greg Beardsley, head of Vashon’s Ferry Advisory Committee, has studied the project as part of a citizen advisory group and noted that it has the potential to delay ferry Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
SEE CONSTRUCTION, 21
Construction is slated to begin at the north-end ferry dock in June.